Name: Pertzo Manai
Age: 28
Alignment: Chaotic neutral
Gender: Male
Physical Description: 6'1" and pretty stringy with it. He has a long body and spiky joints, and over all this a lot of wiry muscle like steel cable. There is very little softness in Pertzo. His fur is black, his coarse hair worn in a plait down the back - if he were to allow anyone to touch it it would have the texture of a nylon tow rope - with a bit of hair loose at the front. His eyes are steel grey and he has three piercings in his right ear, one in his left and one in his left eyebrow. He is rumoured to have a number of other interesting piercings as well, but his tendency to slaughter people who talk about him without his permission has led to that one remaining a rumour.
His muzzle is slightly longer than most - he looks more like a jackal or a coyote than a wolf, dog or hyena - and he has a wisp of beard. His teeth are slightly longer than usual and tend to show even when he has his mouth closed. He wears a lot of black leather, and sometimes raw silk - Pertzo likes to make an effect. His black fur means that tattoos wouldn't show up very well, but among the scars on his back he does have a female sword dancer in bare scar tissue.
Personality: A right bastard, but as stated, not actually evil by definition. He is loyal to Schlan - they have known each other for nearly twenty-two years now and Pertzo is probably the closest thing Schlan has to a best friend - and to a certain degree to Tren and (less so) to Hakt, but that's about it. As Schlan's second, he is reliable, in that he can be depended upon to take orders, to keep his head, to fight well and dependably, to be fair and not to rebel without any fairly easily recognisable warning signs. What more could any gang leader reasonably ask?
Pertzo is bright enough; he knows that being Schlan's second is a damn good position to have for the moment, and if he wants a higher position later, it will probably be easier to go start his own gang than try and take Schlan's.
He regards other people as useful things but mostly disposable, especially if they talk too much. Pertzo is a quiet person, although when he does talk he almost always turns the air blue. People who Pertzo does not regard as disposable at the moment include Schlan (obviously), Schippa and Kanoi, and Schlan's other acknowledged children (because Schlan would run him through if he tried), and Tren and Hakt (unless he could get both at the same time, because if he didn't, the other would be out for his blood.
He also, as has been said, likes effect. He like to have people fear him, and he likes to have people - both sexes, though he does prefer women - desire him. His main vice is young whores - the more unusual the better - and exotic weaponry, usually together, so his captives generally suffer a short, painful life. He has been addicted to opium before and had a horrible time coming off it - he now refuses to go near the stuff, even to trade it.
He likes to get things done quickly, unless he's torturing someone - if it hasn't already been gathered, Pertzo likes pain, his own and other people's, to an unsettling degree.
He doesn't discuss his troubles, or his thoughts, with anyone - or at least anyone who's going to live. If he's using you to pour out his soul to, you can be fairly sure he will kill you when he's finished.
Weapons: Normally - machete on each hip, kukhri sword on back scabbard (with the smaller knife attached to that), a sleeve dagger up right sleeve and a deer horn knife in right coat pocket. Might also have a poison dart gun (usually about three inches long), a few caltrops and anything else he thinks is cool/might be handy. To put things in perspective, Pertzo has been known to have a bottle of phosphorous in his coat pocket.
Any other things we should take note of: He was born in the same village as Schlan, to a prostitute who abandoned him aged six - it's possible his mother was trying to protect him from having to 'earn his keep', as it were, but he has still never forgiven her. Still, it could be said that Pertzo was born to be a gutter brat, and he seems to have done fine. He met Schlan three months later, when Schlan was about nine, and they proceeded to try and beat each other up. Schlan won, of course, but Pertzo had just thrown himself into the fight with an almost gleeful abandon and given Schlan an absolute gusher of a bloody nose in the process. By the time Schlan started getting himself a gang of slinkoi (lit. 'roof parasites' - in the manner of 'street rats') Pertzo, now nine himself, had been fighting alongside him as opposed to with him for a year and a half.
Pertzo is Schlan's second in everything except the opium trade, which Pertzo refuses to touch - he started taking the stuff when he was fourteen and decided he didn't want this shit three years later, but it took him another two years to quit, by which time he'd lost his place in the gang and had to fight to get it back. For this reason he also doesn't drink much - apart from the sex trade, Pertzo is remarkably clean-living.
He is known to have at least one child, an eight-year-old son named Kletz. He may have more; but given his tastes, it's unlikely.
He trades in weaponry and bootleg liquor and of course anything else that passes through the gang's hands.
If any of the gang is a classical bandit, it's probably Pertzo. If you had to pick any particular member of the gang to stay on the good side of, it would also probably be Pertzo.